Time to split up the T&M categories?

[MadTux]

Better split would be IMO between new  and vintage instruments.

[Mr. Scram]

Better split would be IMO between new  and vintage instruments.

I can only imagine the endless whining that would cause about what is and isn't vintage.

[beanflying]

Not to mention why would you split 'vintage' gear off from the often inferior 'new' rubbish available   

[0culus]

Leave it alone is my vote. I detest forums that make a subforum for every little thing. It segments off the discussion too much.

As for vintage vs modern...here's the thing. With some TLC, great vintage gear is every bit as useful (especially for the hobbyist) as anything modern, disregarding things that did get better with time such as DSOs. Especially if you don't have the biggest budget...you can buy and fix up a lot of HP and Tek gear for the price of one of one of these new tricked out Tek 3 and 4 series scopes. It's just Test Equipment. Heck, I was reading a physics paper from just a few years ago recently where the authors used an HP 8510C VNA system for their work.

[MadTux]

Not to mention why would you split 'vintage' gear off from the often inferior 'new' rubbish available   

So I don't have to look a Chinesium rubbish when looking for old equipment teardown/repair/updates?

[beanflying]

The correct answer is TEA it's all good and doesn't discriminate

[bd139]

TEA thread could do with its own subforum 

[xrunner]

TEA thread could do with its own subforum 

Sub-TEA categories? 

Not sure if this SMF capable of assigning "limited" power moderator ?

It can definitely do that.

C'mon Dave, looking on how this forum grows, don't you think its time to add more hands ? Yourself, Simon and sometimes once in a while Gnif popped out to help, imo, is not enough.

But more like non destructive administrating works like moving newly created thread to more suitable section, just look how crowded General Area with technical subjects that supposed to be placed correctly, again, not sure if SMF supports this limited ability moderator. 

Or nominate and offer few well known trusted members, ask specifically they are not allowed to do any destructive/moderating works, only help tidying up the cluttered threads, especially once the forum is expanded into more sections as your plan.

I completely agree. I mean by this time I'm sure he can find - say - 5 or 10 trusted members out of (at this time) 50672 members. 

IMHO, the requirement that making a few more major test equipment boards is a non-issue as far as "workload" is concerned. The forum will continue to grow. Is it going to stay organized this way forever? C'mon - things need to change over time.

If you think that requires more work - it does. But that's not an excuse, again IMHO because you have FREE help that will organize any mis-posted topics. As I said, I put my money where my mouth is - I will volunteer to help do this AND to move all the topics to the proper places if new boards are created. He knows I have installed, setup, and run SMF forums so I am "qualified" (but maybe he doesn't trust me  ). But, I guarantee that you can get at least 10 trusted members to do this job. All for no cost and it will be done reliably and efficiently. I mean we can fix test equipment - don't you think we can move a topic to where it's supposed to go? 

[precaud]

I'd like to see time- and frequency-domain instruments as separate categories. Or just give scopes a separate category. That would clean things up a lot.

[bd139]

TEA thread could do with its own subforum 

Sub-TEA categories? 

Underpants, aeroplanes, 3d printing, Italian meats, delivery company complaints subforums 

[xrunner]

I was just looking at all the boards on the main forum page. Somebody mentioned having a vintage test equipment board which was kindof shot down.

But ... on a test equipment forum we get a vintage computer board, on mainly a test equipment site. But we can't have a vintage test equipment board? Doesn't make any sense to me. 

[Mr. Scram]

I was just looking at all the boards on the main forum page. Somebody mentioned having a vintage test equipment board which was kindof shot down.

But ... on a test equipment forum we get a vintage computer board, on mainly a test equipment site. But we can't have a vintage test equipment board? Doesn't make any sense to me. 

It's going to be controversial no matter what. As a matter of fact it already is controversial.

[0culus]

*snip*

Underpants, *snip*

Make this one protected like the supporters lounge. 

[tggzzz]

I'd like to see time- and frequency-domain instruments as separate categories. Or just give scopes a separate category. That would clean things up a lot.

And where would you put modulation domain analysers? They show frequency as a function of time, and I want to get one.

(Yes, I already have power-vs-time and power-vs-frequency analysers, so frequency-vs-time would complete the triumvirate)

[tggzzz]

TEA thread could do with its own subforum 

Sub-TEA categories? 

Underpants, aeroplanes, 3d printing, Italian meats, delivery company complaints subforums 

Smirk.

The only relevant one there is the last!

[Fungus]

But ... on a test equipment forum we get a vintage computer board, on mainly a test equipment site. But we can't have a vintage test equipment board? Doesn't make any sense to me. 

It does to me. Computers aren't a continuum, test gear is. A multimeter of any vintage would still be useful on my workbench, I couldn't use a vintage computer to do my job though.

PS: It's not a "test equipment forum" or "test equipment site". Only a small percentage of Dave's videos are about test gear.

[xrunner]

It does to me. Computers aren't a continuum, test gear is. A multimeter of any vintage would still be useful on my workbench, I couldn't use a vintage computer to do my job though.

Well that's for each person to decide isn't it?  Not everyone is using these items for a "job"; for example, I'm retired so I may very well have all sorts of equipment that wouldn't be used in a job. Nowhere does it say we have to talk about electronics that is used in a job.

PS: It's not a "test equipment forum" or "test equipment site". Only a small percentage of Dave's videos are about test gear.

That may be true but most topics are NOT about his videos. We're talking about the forum here not his videos. The forum is not a topic-by-topic reflection of the videos. But what is the top topic on the forum?

Well let's check the stats for an objective look see -

Top Ten Boards

#1 General Chat   345523
#2 Test Equipment    304402

Top 10 Topics (by Replies)

#1 Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

So, #2 board behind the off-topic "General Chat" is about test equipment.
#1 topic by replies is about test equipment.

Need I say more? 

But if you disagree with all that, let's decide what the forum is about"? Electronics in general and all categories of it? So what's the most logical way to divide it up (if it's about all electronics in general). If it's about all categories of electronics then why does vintage computers get a board and not vintage test equipment? Still doesn't make sense to me. But I'm going for a walk and I'll probably just move on because this sort of thing is like herding cats - nothing will be decided. 

[Fungus]

It does to me. Computers aren't a continuum, test gear is. A multimeter of any vintage would still be useful on my workbench, I couldn't use a vintage computer to do my job though.

Well that's for each person to decide isn't it?  Not everyone is using these items for a "job"; for example, I'm retired so I may very well have all sorts of equipment that wouldn't be used in a job. Nowhere does it say we have to talk about electronics that is used in a job.

Where exactly would you draw the line for "vintage" test gear? That's a huge can of worms, methinks.

[bd139]

Anything not made in China

[xrunner]

Where exactly would you draw the line for "vintage" test gear? That's a huge can of worms, methinks.

Back from walk. 

I normally don't like answering questions with questions but to prove a point ... Using your basic thought we have this -

Where exactly would you draw the line for "vintage" computers? That's a huge can of worms, methinks.

If that line can be drawn, then why not the other? 

But yet, we have that line drawn by the users as they wish. All the title says is this -

Vintage Computers
Vintage Computers and related projects

And ... what if somebody posts something about their new Ryzen 7 system on the vintage computer board? It's NOT vintage, so where would a moderator move it? To the {non} vintage computer board? Nope, because that board does not exist on the forum.

Anyway, we're all intelligent people here. It's all valid opinions. The only person that can decide what to do is Dave. I'm here no matter what happens. 

[tv84]

Anything not made in China

Good idea. More 2 categories: Made in China, Not made in China

We should do a PoC. We should split this thread in several categories: those in favor, those against, etc...

[coppercone2]

I post RF stuff to the RF forum just because it has more expertise and you need to be more  careful repairing that stuff compared to a power supply or soldering iron.

[0culus]

Another possible line to draw between vintage and non vintage: whether it's component level repairable or not. The 1990s brought a swift death to component repairable anything.

[Tomorokoshi]

Look at it as each forum topic has a type, as in datatype. I'm limiting the number of types to some arbitrary and capricious set consisting of "Applications", "Discussion", and "Engineering".

From there, we have the top 4 main categories:

Category	Type
Electronics	Engineering
Products	Applications
General	Discussion
EEVblog	Discussion

So right from the beginning there is a partial type mismatch in the main topics. Now let's look at the Electronics and Products categories in more detail:

Electronics

Forum	Type
Beginners	Discussion
Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff	Engineering
Repair	Discussion
Microcontrollers & FPGAs	Engineering
RF, Microwave, Ham Radio	Discussion
Metrology	Engineering
Renewable Energy	Applications
Open Source Hardware	Applications
Manufacturing & Assembly	Engineering
Crowd Funded Projects	Applications
General PCB/EDA/CAD Discussions	Engineering

Products

Forum	Type
Test Equipment	Engineering
Thermal Imaging	Applications
Other Equipment & Products	Discussion
Vintage Computing	Discussion

With that, would there be a better way to make the various forums and sub-forums the same type, such that categories were more identifiable? Clearly there are topics that can fall equally under Electronics->Repair and Products->Test Equipment.

One of the drivers for splitting a forum is whether there is too much volume in that forum that falls into distinct enough categories. The complement is if there are multiple forum areas that have equal relevance to a topic.

With this as guidance, one way to organize is consider an alternate structure such as:

Engineering

Forum	Type
Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff	Engineering
Test Equipment	Engineering
Microcontrollers & FPGAs	Engineering
Metrology	Engineering
Manufacturing & Assembly	Engineering
General PCB/EDA/CAD Discussions	Engineering

Discussion

Forum	Type
Beginners	Discussion
Repair	Discussion
RF, Microwave, Ham Radio	Discussion
Other Equipment & Products	Discussion
Vintage Computing	Discussion

Applications

Forum	Type
Thermal Imaging	Applications
Renewable Energy	Applications
Open Source Hardware	Applications
Crowd Funded Projects	Applications

Now figure out which sub-forums within each category can be split or combined to be unique enough to be the clear option when the case gets to be ambiguous.

[EEVblog]

Look at it as each forum topic has a type, as in datatype. I'm limiting the number of types to some arbitrary and capricious set consisting of "Applications", "Discussion", and "Engineering".

From there, we have the top 4 main categories:

Category	Type
Electronics	Engineering
Products	Applications
General	Discussion
EEVblog	Discussion

So right from the beginning there is a partial type mismatch in the main topics. Now let's look at the Electronics and Products categories in more detail:

Electronics

Forum	Type
Beginners	Discussion
Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff	Engineering
Repair	Discussion
Microcontrollers & FPGAs	Engineering
RF, Microwave, Ham Radio	Discussion
Metrology	Engineering
Renewable Energy	Applications
Open Source Hardware	Applications
Manufacturing & Assembly	Engineering
Crowd Funded Projects	Applications
General PCB/EDA/CAD Discussions	Engineering

Products

Forum	Type
Test Equipment	Engineering
Thermal Imaging	Applications
Other Equipment & Products	Discussion
Vintage Computing	Discussion

With that, would there be a better way to make the various forums and sub-forums the same type, such that categories were more identifiable? Clearly there are topics that can fall equally under Electronics->Repair and Products->Test Equipment.

One of the drivers for splitting a forum is whether there is too much volume in that forum that falls into distinct enough categories. The complement is if there are multiple forum areas that have equal relevance to a topic.

With this as guidance, one way to organize is consider an alternate structure such as:

Engineering

Forum	Type
Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff	Engineering
Test Equipment	Engineering
Microcontrollers & FPGAs	Engineering
Metrology	Engineering
Manufacturing & Assembly	Engineering
General PCB/EDA/CAD Discussions	Engineering

Discussion

Forum	Type
Beginners	Discussion
Repair	Discussion
RF, Microwave, Ham Radio	Discussion
Other Equipment & Products	Discussion
Vintage Computing	Discussion

Applications

Forum	Type
Thermal Imaging	Applications
Renewable Energy	Applications
Open Source Hardware	Applications
Crowd Funded Projects	Applications

Now figure out which sub-forums within each category can be split or combined to be unique enough to be the clear option when the case gets to be ambiguous.

Interesting idea, have not thought about it like that before.